Lunch

Chicken thighs fried in peanut oil coated with sesame seeds. The broccoli and cheese with cherry tomatoes was bright and cheerful, and the high-fiber elbow macaroni completed my meal.

My husband ate the broccoli.

Today's Low-Carb Snack

I adore pizza but the thin and crispy crust pizza at Pizza Hut is overcooked to me.  I think everything on the pizza is low carb except the crust.

So today I decided to use a low-carb slice of bread (instead of Texas toast) and go from there.

I used a jelly-roll pan and put butter in it.  I heated it up, then put the slices of bread in and toasted it lightly, then mashed it as flat as I could get it and flipped it over.  Then I toasted it a little longer.

I smeared marinara sauce on the bread, then put the mozzarella cheese on it, then the diced banana pepper, and last, the pepperoni.

I baked it at 400 degrees 8-10 minutes. 

Ella May, Larry, and I all enjoyed it.

Note: I had a lot of the marinara sauce left so I put it in an ice tray so I can thaw a few cubes out next time.

Baked Beans Adaptation

Well, it looked like baked beans so my next question was how would it taste?

I used all the regular ingredients (bacon, onions, hot peppers, Worcestershire sauce). The ingredients I changed were beans (pinto beans), ketchup (tomato paste), brown sugar (diet root beer concentrate).  The next thing I had to be aware of was portion size.  I decided that 1/4 cup is correct for portion size.  My blood sugar was 111 this morning so I think it is all right.

For taste, I thought it was good but waited with trepidation for Larry's evaluation.  He said it was good.  But.  Sometimes he says it is good and I have to watch to see if he ever eats more.  He doesn't want to discourage me from cooking:)

Idea for Baked Beans

I wish I liked salad, but it isn't one of the things I automatically put on a holiday menu.  I've been told that baked beans aren't fancy enough for company.  It is possible that it wasn't fancy enough for that company.  But my idea of cooking for company includes the knowledge that we will have to eat the leftovers.
But I really want baked beans every time we grill.  So today I decided that since beans aren't low-carb, but are high fiber, I should try for a reasonable adaptation.
So today I started soaking pinto beans.  Pinto beans aren't the lowest carb dried bean, but I like to have a large number on hand in case of emergency.
I plan to sweeten the baked beans with the diet root beer flavoring that I use with my soda stream.  I will also use ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, bacon, onions, and hot green pepper I put in the freezer last fall.
I guess I like to play with my food.

Enchiladas

I love Mexican food.  Some of it is on my diet, some isn't.  But I found a sour cream enchilada recipe in the Tennessee Farm Bureau magazine.  I made it exactly as it was in the magazine except I used low-carb tortillas and added chopped hot peppers.  It was pretty good, but the can of cream of chicken soup and the can of cream of mushroom soup will be omitted next time and replaced with cream cheese.

Phaque Crepe

My view of this low carb, high-fiber diet is that when I can, I substitute something with less carbs in a recipe that I like.  Sometimes it isn't even a recipe, it's just an off-the-wall idea.
Today I shopped with a friend.  This gave me unexpected time to look at stuff in places I usually zoom on by.
I found Buena Vida whole wheat tortillas for low carb diets.
I am not a real fan of tortillas out of a package, but I looked at the nutrition facts and saw that one tortilla has 9 g of carbs with 5 grams of dietary fiber.  So I decided to try it. This put it on my diet.
I decided to make a dessert crepe with my low-carb tortilla.  When I got home, I put a tortilla on my cast iron griddle to warm it up.
Then I buttered one side and sprinkled Splenda and cinnamon liberally.
Next I put cut up strawberries down the center and topped the strawberries with little dollops of sour cream and rolled it up.
It was quite tasty.  I think it would be good also with cream cheese:)
I think it might make a good base for an individual pizza, too. Now I need to go back to the store to get mozzarella cheese and pepperoni. 

Hawaii Toast

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
1 slice low-carb bread, spread with mayonnaise
1 slice of Starns smoked ham from Kroger, folded
2 slices of pineapple in its own juice, drained
1 slice of baby Swiss cheese, folded
Put this stacked open-faced sandwich in the oven for five minutes.
It's quick and easy.  It's reasonably low-carb.  I think it might be more "diet" if I only put one slice of pineapple, but I really like pineapple.